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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Do you guys remember how we spent Christmas Eve eve? We found out our hot water heater was on the fritz and not to jump on the TMI train but the Mr and I had to take a speed shower together if we both wanted hot water. Twas not romantic.

Ask us how we spent New Years Eve eve.

Taking a speed shower together trying to both get some of the last tank of hot water left before we had to turn off the gas line because of a gas leak in the new hot water heater.

It's good to see that there were some good times in there sprinkled with the challenges.

Obviously, I'm happiest when we're on vacation and while that remodel took our summer and a lot out of me, I love the end result too much to dwell on how much it drained me. ;-)

We don't have any plans for tonight. I actually had to remind the Mr that it's New Years Eve! So you can see we've settled into middle age quite nicely. HA! My suspicion is we will finish up our binge watching marathon of The Wonder Years. Jealous?

Happy New Year to you all!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to let in the plumber.

What was your favorite moment of 2014? Any plans for tonight?

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Friday, December 26, 2014

If you follow on Facebook, you know that Christmas Eve Eve our hot water heater decided to die. Yep. Right there on the spot, the day before our big Christmas Eve gathering with my mom where I have nothing to do all day but run around like a chicken with my head cut off.

I already had some sinus issue where I couldn't smell/taste for the two days prior. (Thanks a lot sick dude at the Christmas concert. Note to self: No more Christmas concerts the week before Christmas) So I wasn't in the merriest frames of mind to begin with. Then I notice there isn't hot water when I'm washing my hands. The Mr checks and says the pilot light is out. We wait for the scent of gas to dissipate (relying on his sniffer, not mine obviously) and he relights it. Ten minutes later, it's out again. Repeat.

Great.

We were already thinking it needed to be replaced because there was a ton of sediment knocking around in there that draining and flushing wouldn't remedy and it was driving me insane. We figured we'd replace it in the new year. The heater had other plans. We got seriously screwed by, we'll call them Schmoto Schmooter when we had our last one installed. It was not built to last, a crappy tank and we paid twice the price than the whole install through Lowe's. Not fun to realize how much you were previously bent over.

So to thank them for coming out on Christmas Eve, I baked some cookies for the installers (just when I thought I was done!) When I gave it to the guy, he turned so red because a girl talked to him I thought he was going to rocket out of his skin!

I suppose I should've been more frantic but I guess I felt like the $700 we just got in credit card cash back that was going to go toward pleasure, would now be delegated for this Christmas surprise. This meant that basically it was only going to bite into our regular budget for over $100. I'm thankful that money was available to us when an emergency reared its head and instead of feeling bummed and boo hoo-ing, all I could feel was grateful.

I guess that feeling of gratefulness along with the Christmas story is what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.

Now, time for my last two hostess duties and tomorrow I'm just going to lay in bed all day.

How was your Christmas/holiday?

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Wednesday, December 24, 2014

"It's Christmas Eve. It's the one night of the year when we all act a little
nicer. We smile a little easier. We
share a little more. For a
couple of hours out of the whole year we are the people we always hoped we would be.

It's a miracle...it's really sort of a miracle because it happens every
Christmas Eve. And if you waste that miracle, you're gonna
burn for it. I know what I'm talking about.
You have to do something. You
have to take a chance and you do have to
get involved. There are people that are having trouble
making their miracle happen. There are
people that don't have enough to eat and there people that are cold. You
can go out and say hello to these people. You can take an old blanket out of the closet
and say "here" or make 'em a sandwich and say, "oh by the
way...here."

l get it now. And if
you give, then it can happen, then the miracle can happen to you. Not just the poor and hungry, it's everybody whose gotta have this miracle! It can happen tonight for you all! If you believe in this pure thing, the miracle will happen and you'll want it to
happen again tomorrow! You won't be
one of those bastards that says "Christmas is once a year and it's a
fraud."

It's not!

It can happen every
day! You've just got to want that feeling!
And if you like it and you want
it, you'll get greedy for it! You'll
want it every day of your life! It can
happen to you! I believe in it now. I believe it's gonna happen to me now. I'm
ready for it! It's great. It's a good feeling. It's really
better than I've felt in a long time.

I'm ready.

Have a Merry Christmas everybody."

-Frank Cross
Scrooged

And to cover the bases...God bless us, everyone.

Merry Christmas and don't forget to leave the cookies out for Santa!

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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

It's been 23 years since my 17 year old ears heard his 19 year old voice say "I love you" for the first time. Of course anyone he told face palmed because the dude isn't supposed to say it first and certainly not after one official date three days prior. What can I say, I was irresistible! ;-) Saying it that first time was as easy as it is saying it now.

Somehow even then, I knew. I knew that this Christmas romance wasn't a passing thing and that we would share many more "I love you's" over our lifetime. We've shared many highs and good times. We've been through our challenging times, often feeling like it was us against the world. But our closeness, friendship, respect and love for each other is something our families, friends and basic strangers have told us they wished for themselves or their children for years. For that, I am proud.

It's good to know that when you look at someone that there is no doubt in your mind they have your back. There is no better feeling than when they've watched you go from an Aqua Net, Sun In, big haired teen to a super morbidly obese woman to losing a good deal of the weight as you cruise into middle age complaining about aching joints and thinning hair and still tell you how 'cute' you are at all of those stages. I suspect when I'm 90 and he's straightening my wig or listening to me yammer on about something and forget my point halfway through that he'll still say I'm 'cute.'

There is no one I would rather go through life with.

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Monday, December 22, 2014

The Christmas concert was good and we looked at some Christmas lights when we were done.

Baked more cookies.

Ate cookies.

Then it was Christmas with a branch of the family tree. We had a nice time even if there was an extra guest that was a little grating. She's a nice enough girl but as our Christmases with older grandparents become less taken for granted, I'm selfish with the time I'd like to spend as a family with them. This person is in town for 3 weeks, why do they need to hone in on the one time per year we see this grandma? This is my haul from her.

I was so glad to get this second set of silverware. Dante's Peak is one of those movies that I like but don't know why. Any time it's on, I have to watch it. Newhart makes me look like I'm 80 years old and should be drinking prune juice cocktails. I guess I really should've followed my instinct and taken it off my list prior to her shopping because you ever look at something and go...'yeah, that's never getting opened.' I think I have 8 DVD's in the same boat down in the basement. Oops! I may force myself to watch it though because well...this is Larry, this is my brother Daryl and this is my other brother Daryl.

There was apparently some drama prior that I was filled in on but I just roll my eyes and thank God that my contact with them is limited. I pray for them, I wish them well but I refuse to play the game. I was given fair warning Christmas Day could be "tense."

Yay?

As the Mr quoted....'another Christmas in the trenches.'

Maybe we'll just hitch a ride on Santa's sleigh and have him drop us off anywhere but here? Drop us in Chicago or on the top of Mount Washington please, St. Nick!

But even with all of other people's attempts to poop on the holiday, I am taking in the next few days as they are my favorite of the year.

How was your weekend?

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Friday, December 19, 2014

People! Can you believe it is the Friday before Christmas!? This is what I've been talking about...you blink and suddenly you're in crunch time and the time will suck into some kind of wormhole and throw you out on December 26th wondering what the hell happened to this last week.

Today I am baking, baking and maybe a little baking. Not just the stuff for friends but the stuff for us too. We have a holiday concert tonight and I must note for future Christmases that going to a Christmas concert the Friday before Christmas is not the best way to take stress off of myself. I also learned that Jif is weak peanut butter to use for buckeyes and will be reverting back to store brand which tastes infinitely more like peanuts. Pffft.

I know this was a long list but I will likely not be doing links next Friday because I will not have time to brush my own hair much less read anything this week. So soak it in or read half the list then save the other half for next Friday.

Tonight we have the concert, tomorrow I'm delivering the cookies and eating cookies and Sunday is Christmas with one branch of the family tree and I have a billion things to bake/make for it too. I'll have Monday to breathe and then the 23rd-26th I'll be in a trance and the 27th I'll be in bed all day long.

What are your plans this weekend? Any holiday gatherings? Baking marathons?

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Thursday, December 18, 2014

I don't know about y'all but I'm knee deep in flour, baking for family and friends. (And ourselves this weekend) I like to keep up on what friends I bake for might like and they shared a pic of cookies with a bear holding an almond. I couldn't find a bear but we did already have a santa so I used him.

Then I forgot after baking some cookies for my MIL to turn down the oven and santa had a tan.

D'oh!

No worries, I made a new batch. But they are super cute and I know my friend will love them!

When I'm making mega batches of dough, I like to pre-mix the dry ingredients when I have time earlier in the month. Then when baking day comes, I can dump all of the dry ingredients in after I've whipped up the wet ones. Just make sure you list what recipe it's for and what ingredients you added so you know not to re-add them.

In case you need some new recipes to try, here are some of the ones I consistently make for family and friends.

If you have picky people (like my family), don't tell them they are potato chip cookies...I renamed them 'sweet and salty shortbread cookies.' When I gave the link to a friend I made them for she said "there's no way there's potato chips in there!" It's a great texture and while they probably won't be in our personal core cookie baking, I will probably make both of those yearly as gifts for others and we'll grab a few out of the batch. I would blow through those potato chip cookies for sure and since they use chips, that's likely why you can't eat just one.

Our core cookies are cut outs from the old Better Homes and Garden cookbook (decorated with multi-colored icing), chocolate chip M&M (the Mr's favorite), Buckeyes and I usually make gingerbread but sometimes I cheat and use pre-made Trader Joe's Molasses break and bakes to give myself a break which is what I'm doing this year.

If you're looking for more recipe ideas, click here to see all of my 12 Days of Treats links from previous years. Lots of truffle and fudge ideas in addition to cookies. I didn't have the oomph to do it this year. I'll try to do better next year! ;-)

What are your core cookies your family likes you to bake for them every holiday season?

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Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Yesterday we had some pretty mild temps so I figured we'd better catch some walks when walking weather presents itself. This time we thought we'd tackle the local outdoor shopping plaza. Yes...we were mall walkers. Anyone remember that craze in the early 90's of the elderly walking malls before the stores opened?

I cannot tell you how nice it was to be among the throngs of people darting in and out of stores with their must purchase gifts knowing I've been done for 6 weeks. I know that for some people shopping closer to Christmas is half the fun but I am just not built that way. I need to be able to leave if people start to annoy me. Which always never happens.

We walked about 2 1/2 miles around the perimeter and then backtracked and hit a few stores. I did have one gift I wanted to pick up in Anthropologie and since I knew we'd be there, I left my hands feeling like sandpaper. (Anyone else feel like they could sand an old wooden bench with their hands?) I love to sample their sassy lotions and oh my Lord I put on their English Rose lotion and couldn't stop sniffing my hands for 4 hours! Heavenly. I'm gonna have to wait for a sale because I just can't bring myself to pay $22 for it given the size. Either that or I'm going to just go there every day and use their sample. You don't think they'll catch on, do you? Hee hee.

We came home and I made dinner...spicy orange BBQ mahi burger and potato wedges.

Then it was time to settle in with a cup of decaf tea and two egg nog cookies I budgeted for to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas
. (affiliate link)

The real version, not that atrocity with Jim Carrey. I caught a glimpse of it before bed the other night and thought I would have nightmares!

I solidified my final Christmas visit and now I need to get to menu planning/deciding what restaurants to go to if the culinary muse doesn't strike. Luckily there's a whole slew of restaurants opening in our area so I don't think we'll be at a loss.

We have to really soak in all of this week because from Sunday to Friday, it is going to be crazy cakes around here! I can't believe in 10 days it's all going to be over. :-(

Do you ever walk non-conventional places for your workouts? What is your favorite scent of lotion?

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Monday, December 15, 2014

As I mentioned Friday, our friends had to cancel our Saturday gathering because they were both sick as dogs. I turned around and made plans right away with another friend for a Sunday brunch. She's a super sweet girl who almost married into the family but that didn't work out. Thankfully we have kept in touch and get together on occasion. She mentioned my baking and I decided to bake up her and her boyfriend some non traditional cookies. I don't know how but I saw a recipe for potato chip cookies and I was totally intrigued. I decided I had to make some and I'd let her be the guinea pig, we'd eat a few and the rest go to work with the Mr. I followed this recipe and man, they were GOOD! If you're a fan of sweet and salty, they are awesome. I told her they were 'sweet and salty shortbread cookies' because I don't know if people will weird out when they know the ingredients. So I dipped mine in chocolate and sprinkled a little French fleur de sel I had on hand. That extra little kick of salt was perfect.

I made quite the spread because she likes my cooking so much. I made challah egg nog French toast and billionaires bacon. (Spicy brown sugar bacon)

That was pre-coating them in a little brown sugar. Yes, I made sure to remove the calories ahead of time. ;-)

Luckily I bought extra of everything because something told me she might bring her boyfriend this time and I was right. Just as she was leaving she asked if it was okay to bring him. He is so nice and we had such a good time. They also made us feel so old like when they learned our wedding pics were taken on film. Yep, that's right. We all had to stand there for 20 minutes while the man used the fire stick and kept the shutter open to get our expressions and hoped the black plague didn't kill anyone in the wedding party while we waited. HA!

She's a budding photographer and I saw this cute mug with a vintage camera on it so I picked it up for her and when she mentioned my baking, I made 6 different kinds of cookies for them and a packet of my not yet patented perfect cup of hot cocoa. Here's a sneak peek into one of their boxes of cookies.

The hug I got was worth it. Might I say those 'Delightful Fudgies' are friggin' awesome? Just follow my ChocoRolo Cookie recipe but instead of using Rolos use Delightful's peanut butter chocolate chips. Holy Lord. I mean they were all good but those were some of our favorites. We skipped a traditional dinner that night for trying each kind of cookie. Quality control calories don't count, right?

Oh yeah, if you'd like to know what true horror is, you can do what I did to make me think I'd be losing my 2nd toe...

It was more red than that when I peeled off my compression socks after a day full of baking. It actually looked like it had cut completely through my toe. I felt about halfway through the day what felt like my toe knuckle rubbing pretty bad. I thought it was just rubbing against the material but didn't have time to tend to it. Finally after 6 hours of this feeling I couldn't take it and pulled off the sock to find somehow one of MY HAIRS off of my head got wrapped around my toe and stuck to the left over Blister Blocker adhesive in there and it had been slowly cutting off the circulation to my toe all day. I looked in horror and between almost fainting and almost screaming in terror from it looking like it was going to fall off, I had the thought to get peroxide. "I'll dump peroxide on it and if it bubbles then we'll see if I need stitches and I'll scream to alert the Mr and then faint." Thankfully there were no bubbles. It took about 3 hours to return to normal. And yes, even with stitches in my foot...brunch would've gone on. I'm that dedicated of a host, y'all!

After they left, we both got hit by a wall of exhaustion and took a 30 minute nap. I got up and nudged the Mr to get up for a walk around the historic district. I think we were able to make it another 30 minutes before feeling like we wanted to cut our legs off so I think the walks are working! The lights were all lit up and it was almost dusk when we were done.

Then it was off to the grocery store to pick up some fruit and veggies. Then home for dinner and since my sassy Pottery Barn Santa Mugs came 2 days EARLY, we were able to enjoy our Sunday hot cocoa in them whilst watching Home Alone 2!

Yes...I made those snowman marshmallows. I saw their pricier brother at Williams Sonoma and made some for us and friends. :-) I'm the original Christmas nerd, what can I say.

What did you guys do this weekend?
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Friday, December 12, 2014

Yesterday's visit with the chiro went well. He told me no high impact the rest of the year since I had such great results laying off this week. I don't mind and he said it'll just help me heal that much faster and I'm all about that, yo! Must make him some cookies for next week too. I know...it's a sickness. When I know they're for someone else, I'm not tempted by them so no worries. Yet.

On a doing mama proud note, the Mr caught one of the little bastards that has been molesting our curbside lighted Christmas trees yesterday! Like IN THE ACT. He gave him a good little 1970's style tongue lashing that will mean absolutely nothing because his parents likely would do nothing if confronted with his misdeeds. He even broke the one he pulled out of the ground and we just bought those damn things 2 1/2 weeks ago! NOT happy! We think he was one of four that have been yanking it out of the ground as I saw three others walk by a few minutes later to stop and read the "Smile! You're on camera!" sign we have posted by them. I alerted the Mr and he ran to the door like Scrooge minus the cane to whack them all with. So we are settling into the "get off my damn lawn" phase of life quite nicely. He made me proud!

But enough of all of that, let's get to...

8 Ways to Lose Weight While You Sleep (Sign me up yo! Actually that new fitness tracker says I burned 700 cals whilst sleeping. I think I'd have to subtract 50 calories for the laughing I did in the first few minutes of tracking.)

Well, we got the word last night that our friends we were getting together with tomorrow night are both sick with two kinds of creeping crud between them. The Mr talked to the male half and said he sounded like crap and it's definitely something we don't want to catch this holiday season so we'll get together in January. But a few minutes later I made brunch plans with a friend for Sunday morning so we'll be having egg nog French toast. I have to bake some cookies for her so I'd better make a few more doughs today and choose what I'm going to make. She mentioned my baking specifically so it's not optional and I'm glad for it because when you get a rep from someone who appreciates it, you like to deliver. Well, I do. :)

Whatchu got planned this weekend? All business or tomfoolery or a healthy mix of both?

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Thursday, December 11, 2014

Yesterday I started feeling the stress of all of the entertaining I have coming up.

I love to entertain, trust me, I live for it, but there just aren't enough weekends in December when Thanksgiving is so late. I need to make a to do or rather a 'to bake' list and when everything needs to be made. I've got butter softened so I can start pre-making my cookie dough and freeze it. I will be glad when those things are all in the freezer and I can just thaw, scoop and bake. I cannot believe it's two weeks until Christmas. SO much to do and seemingly so little time to do it. Just need to finalize a few visits and I can plan a little better and make my lists on what to buy at the grocery stores.

We started to do Powerstrike and I realized a few moves into the kicks that this was not going to be good for my vow of low impact for the rest of the year to heal up. I felt a little pain shoot into my toe and while I might've been able to handle it, I don't want to yo yo on the road to recovery. I want to recover and be done with it. I know this is the WORST time of year to have to cut back on jumping around but I have to listen to the bod so I don't continue being 'little Moe with the gimpy leg.' So I let the Mr jump around and I did Walk Away the Pounds moves while he finished Powerstrike. I felt like such a loser, I almost cried. I know he doesn't see me that way but I feel like I'm holding him back if he does my lower impact workouts. So I may just start working out during the day and he can do whatever his normal body can handle when he gets home. Pity...party of one.

I surprised the Mr with this fitness tracker he wanted. His heart rate monitor has been on the fritz the past month and I finally got tired of hearing it. I told him if bitching about his crappy HRM burned calories then he was burning a lot. HA! I got one for myself as well and to say I hate it with everything in me is an understatement. I am going to give it one week (okay, probably today after screwing with it all night) to see if I change my mind before I bash it with authority and send it back. He can keep his if he wants but I have never had an HRM where you do your workout and you can't even look down and see how many damn calories you burned. I mean for real?! That is the most basic of functions and this is supposed to be top of the line!? Then we're both fairly certain that the calorie count is WAY off and the forums seem to confirm this. I hate this thing...it comes straight from Satan's fiery taint, I tell you.

I was so frustrated by the time I was done dealing with that thing and taking my frustration with it out on anyone in 5 yards...aka The Mr...I didn't have the time or patience to make what I had planned for dinner so I switched it to BBQ chicken, sweet potato and carrots. It was quite yummy though.

I was reading a post by my friend Kristen at the Putt Putt Runner about taking in moments. She makes good points about taking in not just the big things like the holidays, occasions and such but the little things. She talked about even being able to go to the grocery store and that some people have to go hours to get groceries and I've got four grocery stores in walking distance of me. I'm also grateful that the Mr and I go together. I never realized how rare that supposedly is because when I would mention it at work people always asked how I got him to do it. Uh, I said 'let's go to the store' and he came with me. But her post got me thinking of my favorite little moments of the past few days. When we were on our walk yesterday, I was following just behind him because parts of the sidewalk were narrow or we'd be close to passing someone. At one point he said "I don't know who you are but you've been following me for 23 years and I hope you don't stop." :-) Last night my favorite moment was when I was seductively putting on my granny compression socks before our workout and sang Robert Palmer's "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" and he cracked up laughing. It's little moments like those that make life fun and I thank Kristen for reminding me to enjoy those.

I burned 425 calories doing a free weight session. Then I tried a new version of a favorite. I know we will never cut out pasta but I thought I'd try that whole replacing half of your pasta with zucchini thing. So I measured out four ounces of whole wheat pasta and did as much of a zucchini on my mandoline(affiliate link) as I could, shaved 1/2 ounce of balsamic cheddar and made chicken parm.

It really helped bulk it up and cut 200 calories from the dinner so I think that'll work in the future. (Especially in the summer when zucchini is plentiful!)

Oh and I couldn't help myself, I had to break down and buy my coveted Santa Claus mugs from Pottery Barn.

They were the gift of the day with 30% off yesterday and were the lowest I've seen them. When I checked the pattern, I saw two of the items were sold out. I called my local store and they said all of the local area stores are out and won't be getting more in. OY! See, this is always goes for me...I wait for the prices to drop and then go to buy it on sale and it's sold out. Every. Friggin'. Time. So I bit the bullet and even with shipping I'd save $7. Not quite the savings I wanted but I suspect hot cocoa will taste 110% better in these.

What was your favorite little moment from yesterday? Do you ever say you're going to buy something and when you go back to buy it, it's sold out and you try to kick your own butt?

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Tuesday, December 9, 2014

I'm not ashamed to admit I didn't haul my bum outta bed until 10am yesterday! That's right. I slept hard too. I'm paying for it but needed the sleep. Walking for 90 minutes on up and down terrain at a pretty fast clip was enough to make us both a little sore. So we got up and had a bowl of cereal with some cut up nana and chia seeds in there and lounged a bit.

The Mr took the movie back, we decided to eat some lunch and get to a belated task. Our dog and my mom's dog are buried next to each other in a pet cemetery and we always have their Christmas trees on their graves at Thanksgiving. Time got away from us this year but we made it out and wired some small stuffed animals they would've loved playing with on them and got them looking all purty. It brings us great comfort to know that not only were they great friends in life but will be next to each other forever.

When we were done there, we decided to go walk the historic district some more to keep on the low impact route this week and next while I heal up. While it is low impact, those wonky sidewalks are like doing 3 1/2 miles on a balance board. I wore my granny compression socks so I could reduce any impact on my legs if possible. Because the patisserie we pass only has gingerbread macarons for the next 2 weeks, we had to stop.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Friday we went to a Christmas jazz show and it was wonderful. It really set the holiday mood and the city was lit up under the foggy blanket over the buildings. We came home and put on the Christmas music station, lit some pine incense, turned on the tree and any other lighted decoration and enjoyed a mug of tea and a truffle. It was exactly one of those times that I talked about being able to sit back and enjoy the season. It was perfect. If every day felt like that, I wouldn't feel the stress the rest of the season brings at all!

Saturday we hit a few local stores, grabbed some deep dish at a pizza joint then headed on our road trip to more Christmas tomfoolery. We stopped by an antique store where I'm pretty sure these come to life at night.

We've been going to these candle lightings our whole marriage and sadly, the town is morphing from an old timey feel to just a regular mom and pop any town USA feel. The same stores are rarely there two years in a row. We think the last old fashioned shop will likely be gone next year and if that's the case, we don't think we'll make a trip back. We did luck out and have really nice people next to us this year instead of the usual screaming child, stumbling drunk hilljack, indifferent teens trying to pull of how lame it is to be there yet they're all there so just admit you like it since no one is holding a gun to your heads and shut up jerks or the sick person coughing their disease all over us. Having someone come up and stand beside us and wish us a Merry Christmas was like "holy crap! Did something normal just happen!? You mean, no drunk Santa this year??" Yep...it happened about 10 years ago.

We got home and watched some football then headed to bed. I am happy to report I got the best night's sleep I've had in a long time which is always the way to start what could be the most interesting day of your weekend.

Lunch with the in-laws.

It's not that it's bad, it's just awkward sometimes. You never know what will be said and how others will choose to react so you just kind of go in feeling like an emotional kamikaze and hope everyone comes out unscathed in the end. It seemed we all walked away with no therapy appointments necessary so...yay! His mom wants to get together again before Christmas. I don't think she realizes it's like 2 1/2 weeks away!

When that was done, we did a little shopping, chilled for a bit then headed out to see Christmas lights. We hoped with it being Sunday there would be less people than Friday or Saturday. It was a lie. I about froze my nubbins off but it was pretty just the same.

I don't know why we felt compelled to rent Tammy
but we did. (affiliate link) I enjoyed Susan Sarandon in a different role. I was irritated at first that Melissa McCarthy seemed to be playing the same character she does in every movie but thankfully the last third of the movie turned around and it was actually quite sweet. So, $1.50 well spent.

Today, the Mr took the day off to breathe from all of that activity. I'd like to clean up a bit since we're having company this weekend and I don't want to be doing it all on Friday.

I'm looking forward to sleeping in and doing whatever the heck I want today! WOOT!

What did y'all do this weekend?

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Friday, December 5, 2014

I am under orders from the chiro to dial back the exercise intensity for a few days. I made the stupid mistake of piling on a bunch of high impact stuff when I felt better and woke in pain and unable to walk in the middle of the night. Oy, the road to recovery is always so fun. Not.

Unplugged Weddings Are The Latest Craze (As they should be. Nothing worse as a bride and groom to look out to your loved ones during the ceremony and see nothing but phones and tablets staring back at you. Some of the stories in this article are disturbing)

Thursday, December 4, 2014

I've been seeing a lot of lovely home tours lately of people's abodes all gussied up for Christmas. Now I don't have some big ol' house to show you my many rooms, nooks and crannies because it's just the Mr and I and we live in a shoebox that is close to being paid off. But that doesn't mean you can't come on in and sit a spell. Hot chocolate is on the stove...come on in.

This is the project I've been eluding to the past few days...

I saw this picture on Country Living's website and given how much the Mr loves skiing and our recent stay in a skiing mecca of Stowe, VT, I knew I wanted to do it in our home. Two days later, I was hunting through antique shows and stumbled upon this set of skis for $25! One of them was stained but we can either keep them that way or when the season is over, I can strip the wooden skis and re-stain them.

I knew if I did the wreath on them it would add a ton more weight and cover the leather straps on the skis so we got this swag of greens to hang in the middle instead. I also hung up some small ski art prints I picked up in Stowe and love the way it all came together.

You may remember what the mantel area looked like when I did the post about creating a Fall vignette. Well, it was time to get a splash of Christmas!

Oh, let's not forget the tree...

Yes, I totally have a star on top and I like it that way. It's how I always drew them as a kid and for me an angel, big bow or anything else won't do. It's filled with red and opal white ornaments as well as some shiny ornaments from our travels. I put the travel ornaments that didn't go with my motif on a smaller tree I'll show you in a few.

But let's get back to the mantel.

I decided to keep the birch tube vase and added some fresh greens, two sprigs of sparkly holly from World Market, a couple of pine cones and an antique sheet music paper chain. The candle smells like pine so it's nice to light and take in the smell of Christmas when I go nose blind to the greens.

On the window, I used a 6" candle ring centerpiece with fir, cedar and boxwood hung with a red ribbon. Simple but still conveys the cozy feel of Christmas.

Of course I have to have up our old school ceramic tree we picked up last year! I put it on a book just to vary the height a little and I love this sparkly candle with the poinsettia ring. Don't worry, it's a battery-operated votive candle(affiliate link) so no real flame has a chance of setting fire to the wreath. They aren't cheap but were worth every penny.

This sparkly vintage Christmas bulb garland was a project last year and I loved it so much it made a return appearance this year.

I took my Fall flowers out of my coal bucket and replaced them with some birch logs, more World Market sparkly holly and a few ornaments.

The armoire is pretty simple this year. I just put up a poinsettia swag I used to hang on the wall on top.

The little converted CD shelves house a couple of knick knacks. On the left is a Santa drinking cocoa and a fireplace. The bottom is a little putz house knock off I made last year. You can lift the top off and put a faux votive in there. On the right is a wooden Santa that holds candy canes that my work dad gave me for Christmas many years ago. If you look behind him, you can see he's hiding our Christmas DVD's to watch. On the bottom is a vintage hen that I painted with mirror spray paint and a decorative pine incense box.

On the top shelf is just a votive holder with some boxwood and faux berries. There is a hole in the back of the armoire so I used a vintage tin lid to cover it.

On to the other armoire...

Let's take a look at each shelf. On the top is the white nativity scene I've had since before the Mr and I were married. It's from Christmas Around the World. Anyone remember that company? On the top shelf is a J O Y decoration I made a few weeks ago with antique sheet music, ribbon and sparkly glitter. There's a small birch tube with fresh greens and this gigantor pine cone we got from the nursery. It's way too big for the shelf but I have nowhere else to put it right now so we'll deal with it for this year.

On the second shelf is another tin lid, some porcelain carolers I've had forever in front of a bottle brush tree. I also have my grandma's gumdrop tree up as well.

On the bottom shelf is my sewing drawer I did, a cloche full of vintage ornaments and bulbs with fairy lights and small stack of vintage books and of course another tin lid.

I tied together the Christmas colored books with jute twine secured with a jingle bell and pine cone.

The other tree with the travel ornaments was stuck in a vintage cookie tin and put in a corner on an old stool. That area needed a little Christmas...right this very minute.

Because I like simple wreaths, I just decorate with a string of faux berries. Because our weather is so unpredictable and the front door is in direct sunlight, I hang it inside most of the time and when we're expecting company, I'll flip it to the front of the door to welcome guests. You may also recognize the quick craft project of the hanging tea towel on the wall. I still need to twist the top a bit to hang it higher.

That's about it!

Now, let's plug in the tree, grab some hot cocoa and gab by the fire!

What colors do you use to decorate? Do you have a "theme" or a mish mash of things collected over the years?

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I've lost over 200 lbs the old fashioned way with some more to go. I'm doing this with my hubby (The Mr) and he has lost 190 lbs so far. I wanted to share my journey as well and give people with a lot of weight to lose hope that this can be done without surgery or cutting out entire food groups! Passionate about photography, cooking, traveling, DIY and anything 80's.

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